Collectively I worked at Discover Hope for four years and in both therapist positions and as a supervisor. When I started at this company in 2016, I felt they had a great mission and a great structure. BTs felt cared for and supported and supervisors and BCBAs weren’t overworked and had time to really care about their staff and clients. This is not Discover Hope today. Discover Hope today is filled with high turnover (not just with BTs but supervisors and BCBAs as well), unsupported and undertrained BTs, overworked supervisors and BCBAs, and unhappy and underserved clients and families.
Company practices and policies are inappropriate and HR doesn’t follow actual HR standards and laws. Leadership discriminates against people who are different than them. Unvaccinated staff who pursued religious exemptions had their faith questioned inappropriately and their churches brought into the work place by the CEO. Not to mention the attempted persuasion and pressure to get said employees to change their minds. Professional boundaries are nonexistent and staff’s private health information is carelessly dispersed amongst staff that have no business knowing. At one point I was told by the CEO and other members of leadership who all of the company’s unvaccinated staff were and all of them, including myself, had a massive target on their backs and were unfairly discriminated against despite legitimate reasons for their healthcare decisions.
This company flaunts their “core values” around but they aren’t core to anything this company is or does. They claim they “put people first” but gaslight those who stand up for themselves or speak out and then proceed to push them out. They claim they have “crazy awesome integrity” but don’t make employees aware of pay scale changes and will underpay them until they notice and speak up for themselves.
Marketing will have you thinking this company is like a family and does a lot of team bonding but almost every person seen in any picture posted on behalf of Discover Hope doesn’t work here anymore. I personally am still connected with a lot of staff that have left the company and have heard firsthand how unhappy and displeased they were regarding the treatment they received during their time here.
They love to tout their “best and brightest” or “best in Fremont” awards but make sure not to mention that they self-nominate and pay to be submitted.
Most of the positive reviews are written by entry level BTs who have very little knowledge of ABA practices and ethics. The last time a really negative and honest review was written on Glassdoor, it somehow got deleted. Fingers crossed this review stays up long enough to deter quality people from giving this company their employment.
When I put in my 3.5 week notice of resignation, I offered to stay a little longer to make sure my caseload was covered and my clients were in good hands. To my lack of surprise, this offer went unrecognized and was not acknowledged by anyone. I assumed they had someone to take over my cases but I was incredibly upset to hear that only one of my ten cases would be covered by a supervisor and that the new BCBA who was already overworked as is, would now have to be a PS and BCBA for the other nine cases. This shows where Discover Hope’s priorities lie and is a clear example of how they’d rather have their services suffer so long as they can send out that “Discover Hope is 100% vaccinated” e-mail as soon as I had my last day. (Mind you, I submitted to weekly testing for 6 straight months and caused no disruptions in my work or delivery of service).
To anyone thinking of applying at Discover Hope, take it from someone who really did love this company and its mission and has seen it through all its seasons. The reality of this company does not align with how it is marketed. My mental, emotional, and physical health suffered immensely as well as many others who worked here.
